City closing in on grocery store feeler

Emily Lopez shops at Uncommon Fare on the first floor of Cevallos Lofts, where she lives, in January. LISA KRANTZ / EXPRESS-NEWS

At Wednesday’s City Council B session, the findings of a grocery store study will be revealed in an information gathering session, which, by the way, is open to the public. Afterward, the city will issue a request for information (RFI) to see what companies  large and small  are interested in the $1 million cash incentive the city has earmarked for a downtown store.

Already, there have been several players  including the La Fiesta chain; chef Johnny Hernandez; Josh Levine, owner of Uncommon Fare at the Cevallos Lofts  who have said they’d pursue the $1 million carrot.

The study itself says downtown San Antonio can support a grocery store up to 20,000 square feet. But it also suggests the incentive should be higher  between $2.5 and $3 million  to cover higher costs of development, and to do business in general, in the center city. It also suggests a 10-year real estate tax abatement, which would cover the net increase in property taxes. “We believe that after a ten-year period of catalyzed Center City growth, an urban grocery store should be able to operate self-sufficiently.”